Welcome Team ATLS
by ArinSteele
Summary: Arin Steele comes from a distinguished family of huntsmen and huntresses. When she is accepted one year early into Beacon Academy, she has to leave her old life behind to pursue her dream of protecting the people. Leaving her old friends behind was hard, but things are starting to look up for her as she becomes the leader of Team ATLS. [First story: follows storyline of my OC's]
1. New Beginnings

**Author's Note: Hello! Before we begin, I'm here tell you that this story is mainly going to follow the storyline** **of my own OC's. If you don't like to read that stuff, don't read it then. RWBY characters** ** _do_** **appear, but probably not for a few chapters. With that out of the way, please enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: RWBY and its characters are owned by Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

 **Arin**

I stare at the trees as they rush past the window of the moving bus. I'm on my way to the station where I'm going to take the ship to Beacon Academy. I remember it was only a few days ago when I received my acceptance letter in the mail. I was so excited then. Now, not so much.

I look around the crowded bus, some people hold their letters in their hands, making it obvious who's going to Beacon. None that I recognize though.

I sigh. I got into my dream school, I should be happy. Maybe it's because none of my friends made the cut. Well, that and the point that I was accepted into the school one year early as an _exception_. I didn't want to be treated any differently than the other students.

The bus jolted to a stop as we reached the station. I got up and slumped by bag over my shoulder, my two rapiers dangling by my sides. Once in a while they'd get in the way and most of the time they just attract attention towards me. I don't mind though. That way people know that I'm a huntress, or huntress in training to be precise.

I stand in line to board the ship. I ruffle through my bag for my ID card so the attendance knows who I am.

"Arin Steele," An automated voice speaks as I swipe my card, "Welcome to Beacon."

"Thank you," I say under my breath as a habit.

Once on the ship, I take a look around. There are no seats and everyone else is standing. I take position next to a window near the front.

"The ship will take off in five minutes," an automated voice broadcasted in the cabin, "Thank you for your patience."

I looked over the letter in my hand once again. Professor Ozpin says something about team arrangements in the letter, but I don't pay too much attention as I gloss over the words.

"Thank you for your patience," the automated voice chimes again, "We will now begin our flight to Beacon Academy."

I hear a few whoops and cries across the cabin and smile a bit. It's nice to know that even though I may be a bit down, I won't be for long as I'm surrounded by so many new people.

I turn away from the window as the ship begins to lift off and immediately collide with someone else. I stumble backwards while she falls to the ground.

"Ow," she rubs her head.

"I'm so sorry," I say. I offer my hand, "Are you alright?"

"No, no, I wasn't watching where I was going," she doesn't notice my hand and gets up by herself, "I should be asking you that same question."

"Nothing's broken," I reply. I frown as I pay more attention to her. She seems oddly familiar, "I'm sorry, have we met before?" I take in her appearance. She wears a tan (I hope it's tan) tunic with long sleeves, dark blue jeans, and boots. Her long, light-brown hair, is braided and goes over her shoulder. She has brown eyes. _Where have I seen this girl before?_

"I don't think so," the girl smiles, "Pardon my manners. My name is Samantha Aurum; my friends call me Sam."

 _Aurum_? Again, it feels like I've heard that somewhere before but I can't quite recall. "Arin Steele." I reply.

Samantha gasps, "You're Arin Steele?" she asks in a surprised tone. I find it strange however, I've never done anything noteworthy or worth remembering. "You're the one that fought in the Dust robbery a few days ago right?"

Oh yea, that. I totally forgot about it. "Yea, that was me." I said, rubbing the back of my neck, "It's nothing too big."

"Nothing too big? You stopped ten guys with minimal force!"

"Well when you put it that way…"

"Are those what you fight with?" Samantha looks curiously at the twin rapiers at my sides.

"Oh, these?" I pull the blades out and spin them around, "They're a bit conspicuous, but yes, the Balance Breaker. What about you? What's _your_ weapon of choice?"

She raises her hands and shows me the two bulky devices on her wrists. They open up and transform into two golden batons, crackling with electricity.

"I call them the Auric Spectra," Samantha beams with delight. I suddenly remember where I've seen her.

"You're that kid wonder that's amazing at hand-to-hand combat right?" I saw her on the news once. She won first at a national competition or something. It was a while ago.

"Yep, that's me," Samantha says, still smiling. She swings at the air twice, "I want to train to be the best huntress ever!"

I recall a fuzzy detail from the news report and decide to test it, "How old are you?"

"Sixteen," she states, putting away her batons, "Ozpin sent me a letter saying that, considering my background, I would be allowed to attend Beacon a year earlier."

"Hey!" I'm excited at the news, "I'm sixteen too!" Finally, someone who I can relate too! And we're getting along so well, I hope.

"Really?" Samantha beams, "So you're another one of Ozpin's select few! Oh, I hope we can we friends."

I chuckle at her enthusiasm and decide to play along, "Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try out clothes and talk about cute boys." I joke. **[AN: Sound familiar? It should]**

We both laugh and I notice out of the corner of my eye the large lake we're flying over.

"Hey look," I peer through the glass window, "You can see Beacon from here."

"Yeah," Samantha takes a few steps back, "I'm scared of heights though, so I'll stand here."

I take a step back to join her when multiple holograms activate across the cabin. The holograms show a middle-aged woman with light-blonde hair. She has ovular glasses and green eyes and she wears a white top and black skirt.

"Hello and welcome to Beacon," she introduces herself, "My name is Glynda Goodwitch…"

I turn to catch a glimpse of the academy, which the craft is approaching quickly. The tall, white, buildings and the large clock tower seem a bit intimidating. A shiver runs down my spine as I turn back towards the holograms.

"…it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world," Goodwitch finishes up her speech, "We hope you have an educational year here at Beacon and we hope to see you at the auditorium for the opening ceremony." The holograms flicker off.

Cheers fill the cabin as Goodwitch finishes her speech. Just in time too, since the craft has docked and the bay doors open.

Samantha's bouncing around with excitement, she grabs my hand and pulls me along, "Come on!"

I laugh as I let her pull me along. We stop in front of the long path towards the clock tower. I take a deep breath and look around. How to describe it? Pillars, there are a lot of pillars. Uh, trees? Ugh, I can't think straight with all the thoughts running through my head.

"Wow," Samantha, however, seems even _more_ excited, "Arin look! Isn't it beautiful? Hey, over there, that guy's got _blue_ hair! He looks so _cool_!" **[AN: Also should sound familiar.]**

I grab onto her sleeve before she can bolt off again, "Easy there, we don't want you running off the side of the cliff or something."

Samantha takes a deep breath as I did, "Right, thanks Arin. Would be a hell of a first day if a freshman fell off the side of the school, right?"

I laughed, "Let's go," I point towards the mass of first-years heading towards the campus, "My guess is the entrance ceremony."

* * *

"Woah," I gasp in awe as we step into the auditorium. First impression: tall, high ceilings. The windows around the room allow light to focus on a specific point on stage where a lone microphone stands. People have gathered around the stage and filled up the entire room. Samantha and I stand towards the back to not get caught up in the crowd.

The various conversations around the room are silenced by the appearance of the same woman we saw in the holograms.

"Welcome to Beacon Academy," Glynda Goodwitch speaks into the mic, "It's good to see that all the first-year students have made it here without incident. Now, let me introduce, the headmaster of this academy, Professor Ozpin."

Around the room, people cheer and whoop as Ozpin steps onto the stage. He appears to be a middle-aged man with silver hair. He wears a black suit and a green scarf around his neck, and I _think_ he's wearing glasses, it's a bit hard to see because of the distance and large crowd.

The headmaster silences the crowd with a raise of his hand, "You have all traveled here in search of knowledge – to hone your craft and acquire new skills – and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But you must remember, it won't be easy. You are in need of purpose – direction. Your time at this school will prove that the knowledge you gain here will only carry you so far. In the end, it is up to you to make the hard call."

He pauses as his speech sinks in to the crowd and continues, "You will be separated into groups for initiation which will begin tomorrow. Please spend the rest of the day to get a bearing for your surroundings and don't get into too much trouble." Ozpin then steps back and exits the stage.

The horde of people turns to leave the room. Samantha and I are close to the exit and leave before we're run over by the crowd.

"Where to, Arin?" she asks, "We've still got a few hours till they call dinner."

I shrug, I honestly had no clue what to do. I thought they'd give us a task when we arrived at the school, but we've got some time to ourselves I guess.

"We could check out the commonplace," I offer and hold up my bag, "And I want to drop this off, it's killing my shoulder."

"Right!" Samantha says in her usual, cheery tone, "I think it's this way!" We turn right and head towards a long building with multiple stories. Many other students are headed the same way.

We step into the building and onto its carpeted floor. I recognize some people from the ship that are here too, carrying bags and boxes going up and down the stairs.

Samantha and I head to the second floor where we find a large and spacious room. People are setting up sleeping bags and organizing their belongings. We set down our bags in a corner of the room, next to the window.

I roll out my sleeping bag and peer outside. It's a strange feeling, living at a boarding school, with all these other students.

"Arin," Samantha taps on my shoulder and snaps me out of my daze, "You ok?"

I chuckle, "I'm fine, just thinking about some things," I explain, "Let's take a look around the school."

* * *

We wander the campus, taking in the view and our surroundings. We had passed by some holographic domes with people sparring in them, battlefields that could be used for practice. The paths along the cliff give the most scenic views overlooking the lake.

"It's beautiful, isn't it," Samantha stares out into the distance as we take a seat down on a bench facing the lake.

"Sure is," I put my hands behind my head and lean back, I'm pretty tired from all the traveling I had to do in the morning, "Hey Samantha, what drove you to train to become a huntress?"

"Hmm?" Sam turns her head towards me, "Well, I guess I just don't like bullies and I hate seeing other people getting picked on. That's also why I trained in hand-to-hand combat, so I could defend myself and others. Being a huntress is just fulfilling my dream, to protect those who can't fight back for themselves. Pretty corny I know, but it's the truth."

"I wish I could have a reason as noble as yours," I sighed, "I come from a family of pretty distinguished huntsmen and I have to try and live up to their name. I've trained my whole life to get into this school to bring honor to family. Yeah, I want to help people, but I've always been pushed to do it for my family and not for my own reasons. I guess now that we're here I can do what I want with my life."

"Sounds tough," Sam turns back to the view. The sun was getting low on the horizon and the clear, blue, sky had just begun to turn a shade of pink.

I pulled out the scroll we were issued and opened it. It displayed my full name and year. It had three blank spots where I assumed information about my teammates would go. The time on the top read 5:12pm.

"We might want to head back now," I stand up and stretch my arms out, "We've been wandering around for quite a while now."

"Sounds good," I help her up and we begin to make out way back to the center of campus.

We haven't been walking long when we hear an explosion. It didn't sound too big, but we barely avoided a flying body that flew right past our faces. A boy with dark hair groans as he gets up. He winces as he touches his shoulder. I can see a nasty bruise beginning to form.

I quickly rush to his side, "Hey, are you ok?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he brushes me aside and gets up, a look of revenge in his eyes. I follow his line of sight and see a group of four bigger looking guys. They look pissed.

"Hey," the dark-haired boy calls out to the others, "I said I don't want any trouble. It was just an accident."

"Sure it was," one of the bigger guys says sarcastically, "Just like how you spilled Ray's dust supplies back on the ship, _just an accident_."

The boy groans and I catch a glimpse at his shoulder where the bruise was forming. It's gone. _He must've healed it with his aura_.

"Look," the boy says again, "Please, I don't want to fight you."

"Likely story," another guy states, unsheathing a khopesh and holding it out in front of him. These guys are just itching to fight.

I pull out my rapiers and stand next to the boy.

He glances at me, "What are you doing? Are you crazy? Get out of here, these guy won't hold back."

"I'm just trying to even out the odds," I say, taking stance, "I want to help."

"Whatever," he says. He has two devices on his forearm that assemble around his hand and give a red glow. I was about to ask him what they were, but that'd have to wait for after we take down these four.

The large one charges at us with a spear. Before I have a chance to even think about charging back, the boy next to me waves his hand and a strong gust of wind blows the charger back. He stumbles, growing even angrier than before.

"Oh dust," I hear the boy mutter. The four now charge at us all at once. Pretty ineffective strategy if you ask me. I take one of my rapiers and focus my aura into its hilt. With one slash at the air I send them flying back once again with an invisible wall of energy.

The boy seems impressed, "Nice one," he turns back to the four guys who are getting up, "You might want to stand back for this one."

"Huh?" I take step back and he looks back at me, a smirk on his face, his gauntlets glow brighter than before. He turns back to the four guys who have gotten back up. Three of them line up with their weapons pointed at the boy. Their weapons have transformed into ranged firearms.

"Watch out!" I call out to the dark-haired boy, but they've already fired. I turn away and brace for the impact. It never comes. I open my eyes and I see Samantha staring in shock.

I turn back and see that he's perfectly fine. The transparent wall that stands in front of him dissipates.

"Sorry for this," he says to his attackers as he raises a hand. A blast of red is fired at the four which again send them flying back. I kinda feel sorry for the guys, they can't even touch us.

There's something different about the blast though, there's _fire_. The guy welding the khopesh, his jacket caught on _fire_.

"Damn!" He swats at the flame.

The guy holding the spear groans and stands up, "he's not worth it, we should get out of here before…"

"Before what?" The boy next to me interrupts, "You're gonna run?"

The leader of the four, Ray I think his name was, scowls at us and then nods to the other three and they take their leave.

"Yeah that's right you better run!" Samantha calls out to the retreating villains. She then turns to us, "Sorry I just got caught up in the moment, you guys fought so well together!"

I waved her off, "Nah, it was mostly– "

"Damnit," the boy is looking at his scroll, and without a word he takes off.

"Wait…" I call out, but he's already turned the corner and disappeared.

"Well," Samantha crosses her arms, "he seemed like the strange type."

"Yea no kidding," I check my scroll again, "we should get going, they're going to call dinner soon."

"Yes!" Samantha does a fist pump, "Food!"

I laugh and we continue on our path to the main hall.

* * *

We stand before the tall wooden doors of the halls. Inside, long tables line the hall and students are littered across the room with plates of food in front of them.

"Let's go," Samantha leads the way. I follow her lead as she grabs a plate and begins to pile it with food.

"You sure do eat a lot," I comment on the mountain of food on her plate.

She turns around, "Speak for yourself," gesturing to the mound of food I had placed on _my_ plate.

"Touché," I smile, "lead the way."

We sit down at a table and begin to eat our dinner, "So," Samantha begins, "that guy we met earlier."

I put down my fork, "What about him?"

"Those things on his arms," Sam continues to shovel food into her mouth, "what do you think they are? I mean, mine are like a deploying mechanism for my batons, but his go around his arms or something."

I shrug, "Dunno, I mean they were like some kind of gauntlets. They shot out blasts of energy I assume."

"And that last shot," Samantha pointed out, "if I saw what I think I saw, those were definitely enhanced by fire dust."

"Right, right," I nodded, "We could ask him the next time we see him."

A laugh from not far off startled us and we see a girl with long yellow hair guffawing. And speak of the devil, the same boy we saw earlier stood a few feet away from her, also startled by her sudden laughing. I was about to wave before he turned our way and noticed us.

The dark-haired boy makes his way towards us, when he gets closer I can make out that he has amber colored eyes. He's dressed differently too. He's wearing a maroon-sleeved grey hoodie that covers up the devices on his forearms, black jeans, and matching maroon converse.

"Hey," he greets us as he approaches the table. He gestures to the empty seat beside me, "May I?"

"Of course," I pat the seat, "Please, sit."

As he sits next to me, Samantha gives me a glance that looked like a cross between a smirk and an eyebrow raise.

 _What?_ I mouth to her. She giggles to my avail and the boy begins to speak.

"Sorry, I left you guys back there," he begins, "I just– "

"No worries," Samantha butts in, "You have your reasons."

The boy seems a bit taken aback by Samantha's interruption and takes a moment to consider what to say next. "Sorry, I didn't catch your names back then."

Names, right, "Arin Steele," I extend my hand to shake, "And that mess across from me is Samantha Aurum."

"Hey!" Samantha stops eating and turns to the boy, "Just call me Sam."

He boy chuckles, "Terence Cordovan," he introduces himself and shakes my hand, "First-year, and again, I apologize for the mess I had you involved with back there."

I shrug it off, "It was no big deal, nobody got hurt right?"

Terence nods. Sam begins ranting again, "So, Terence. I heard that we'll be assigned teams tomorrow..."

My mind begins to wander as I tune out Sam's voice. Quite an interesting first day and I know there's _much_ more in store for us.

 **End of Chapter 1**

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hey, thanks for reading! This is my first story, so this might be a bit long. If you read all this way and was thinking, "** ** _Where's Ruby?"_** **, or,** ** _"Where's so-and-so?"_** **. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm going to be using my OC's quite often. RWBY characters** ** _do_** **appear, but it's mostly going to follow a different story line. Again, I'm sorry for that, I'm just trying to improve my writing. Honestly, I have no idea where this story's gonna go so if you guys have any suggestions for plot, requests for interactions between certain characters and plot points, or you just spot a mistake or want to correct something in the writing, please do not hesitate to leave a review or DM me.**

 **Also, side-note, I'm only a sophomore in high school so I get pretty busy with homework and studying, so writing is just a hobby for me. I don't plan to have a certain post schedule or post weekly or anything, so follow the story if you want to receive any updates on when I** ** _do_** **post.**

 **Thanks again, and happy reading!**

 **-A**


	2. Initiation

**Chapter 2: Initiation**

 **Author's Note: Hey! Welcome back for another chapter! Again, sorry for the delay since I don't have a designated writing schedule and I just finished finals at my school so that's over with. Also, I have to travel and I can't bring my laptop 'cause it's too big ;-;. I now know that writing an entire chapter on my phone is a pain in the ass. I'm going to go into some of Terence's background in this chapter but not too much. Other than that, school's over so I can probably write a bit more. Happy reading!**

 **Disclaimer: RWBY and all its characters are owned by the wonderful Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

 **Terence**

I sigh as I lay down on the thin sleeping bag. The small light next to me was not enough to illuminate the words of the book I was reading.

"Whatcha' readin'?" Sam asks as she plops down next to me, "Already studying for that pop quiz?"

"It's not a textbook," I say, slightly offended that in the time that we've met, Sam's already assigned me the title of _nerd_.

"I'm kidding," she punches my arm jokingly, "what's it about?"

"Well, it's about a boy who's on the run."

Sam seems extremely interested, so I continue, "The boy's had a tough past. His actions have hurt the people closest to him and he vows never to let anyone face the same fate they did, to be their protector and savior."

"The boy continues on his journey, acting as a vigilante," Arin steps in, "I'm not going to spoil the ending. It's a good book. _The Man and the Moon_ , by Mitra Lynn."

"I've read the book a few times now, I'm surprised you have, Arin."

"What can I say," she shrugs smugly, "I'm a pretty avid reader."

"Boo," Sam groans, "You're all a bunch of nerds."

"Intellectuals," I correct and close the book, "It's getting late you guys, get some rest for tomorrow."

"C'mon Sam," Arin drags her along back to their sleeping bags, "Terence is right, get some rest."

"But I'm not tired," I hear Sam pout.

I chuckle and turn on my side. It's been a tiring day. Between the entire trip, to the brawl, my arm feels pretty sore actually.

I reach up and touch my shoulder and wince. That bruise is back. _I'm not the best at healing, I'll get the hang of it soon enough._

My eyes get heavier as the minutes pass and I drift off.

* * *

I'm standing on the ship again. There's a bit of turbulence and I lose my balance, stepping backwards. I step on someone's foot and trip over them.

"Watch it!" He scowls, dust spilled all over me and the floor.

 _This again_. "Sorry man," I get up, "Here, let me help you with that."

Another guy shoves me out of the way and I fall back down, "Hey! What was that for?" _This isn't exactly how I remember it._

" _Why didn't you save us_?" The guy says, staring at me with wide eyes.

"What?" I'm confused, save who?

" _Why didn't you save us_?" The four chant in unison.

"Uh," I scoot backwards away from the four larger guys that were closing in on me.

My surroundings change. They seem to merge into a darkness. I'm soon surrounded by nothing, a black void.

"Hello?" my voice echoes but dissipates quickly.

 _Why didn't you do more_?

I groan and clutch my head in my hands. I've got a massive headache.

 _You could've saved us_ …

"I don't know who you are!" I shout, still holding my head. My eyes are closed tightly, but that's not enough to keep me from seeing.

In the darkness I see a figure who appears to be chained to a chair, lifeless. Slowly, inching towards me, I recognize the face.

"Arin!" I call out. Immediately, the headache returns, even greater this time. I fight it as I open my eyes once again.

She's staring at me with blank eyes, _Why didn't you save us_?

 _What's going on?_ I think to myself.

 _You know what to do_ …

"SHUT UP!"

* * *

I bolt up, panting. Everyone's still asleep, great, I thought I had called out in my sleep or something.

I glance over at the corner at which Arin and Sam were sleeping, still there. I let out a sigh of relief, they were safe, thank god.

I lie down again and try to drift back to sleep, but with no avail. I groan and sit back up, glancing out the windows. The sun had already risen. Huh, time really does move faster when you're sleeping.

I stretched my arms out and reach for my hoodie a few feet away from me. I grab my clothes and head to the restroom to change.

I stare at my reflection in the mirror and sigh. I've been having dreams like that one for a while, it's always different but always the same idea. You could've saved us. Saved who? I have no clue.

I splash water on my face and fix my bed head, hopefully I can forget about it during the day.

I brush my teeth and return to the commonplace. A few people are getting up slowly as I begin to pack up my sleeping bag. I tip toe over towards the two sleeping girls and set my bag down next to them. I was going out for a walk.

The campus was pretty peaceful in the morning, birds singing and the cool late-summer breeze. The leaves of the trees are still green, but a few are beginning to turn to different shades of brown and red.

I returned to the spot where we had that quarrel yesterday. I bent down on one knee and felt the floor where I had stood, there was a small indent. _Probably from the aura shield._

I begin to think to myself. What if Arin and Sam didn't show up? Would I still have won against all four of them? Maybe, but I'm being too cocky. I remembered Arin's technique yesterday during battle. She's got pretty good form for a fencer. I'll have to ask her about that slash move that she did.

Right then, I felt a vibration in my pocket. I pulled out my scroll and unlocked it. _First call to Breakfast 8:00am_. it read. As a sign, my stomach growls and I make my way towards the main hall.

* * *

"Hey," Arin sits down next to me, "We were wondering where you went off to this morning."

"Just went for a walk," I explained, "Wanted to get a look of the school."

Sam takes a seat across from Arin, "Ozpin said to meet in the auditorium for initiation right?"

I nod, initiation, right. I've heard of Ozpin's strange initiation tests. Apparently, last year, he used chess pieces to determine teams. "Wonder what it's going to be like this year."

"He changes it every year?" Sam says with a mouthful of food, "I thought I'd be the same as the last."

I shake my head, "Ozpin's known for his unique initiation tests. I find it amazing how he finds the time or the creativity to come up with a new one every year."

"Maybe being headmaster is an easy job," Arin wonders, "Maybe he sits up in that clock tower everyday playing _Remnant_." **[AN: For all of you that don't know,** ** _Remnant_** **is that game Team RWBY was playing in the library similar to** ** _Risk_** **].**

I cough as I choke on the milk I was drinking. Imagine that, Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch sitting around all day playing a board game.

A smile tugs at the corner of my mouth as I shake my head, "Whatever the test is, we best be prepared. Testing begins soon, so we better hurry up and get to the auditorium," I say as I pick up my empty plate and utensils.

Arin leans backwards as I move behind her, "Leaving already?"

"Yeah," I rub my wrists, "I've got to go back to the commonplace to pick up my gauntlets."

Arin nods and returns to her food, "Alright, see you at the auditorium!" She and Sam both wave as I walk away.

* * *

I wave back and rub my wrists again, it feels so weird to have them unequipped. The missing weight of the devices makes me feel vulnerable. I head back to the commonplace as fast as I can.

I lock the two devices onto my wrists, thankful for the familiar weight on my forearms. I enter the packed auditorium and quickly scour the crowd for any sight of the two girls. No such luck, I listen to Ozpin's speech from behind the crowd.

"Good morning," Professor Ozpin speaks into the microphone. Everyone is either too nervous or too scared to cheer.

"Let me explain the initiation process to those who are not already familiar with it," Ozpin begins, "First-year students will be divided into groups of sixteen, each group will be individually analyzed."

I gulp. Somehow, he seems really intimidating at this one moment.

"From these groups of sixteen initiates will immerge four teams of four students," Ozpin continues his speech, "These teams will remain the same for your entire stay here at Beacon, so choose carefully."

A few gasps of surprise litter the crowd. When I first learnt of this myself, I was surprised too. Entire stay? Sounded pretty harsh. What if you didn't like your team? What if you didn't get along? I've always been worried about that.

Ozpin finished up his speech, "You will receive further instructions before your test. As of now, your group number will appear on your scrolls. Good luck, and happy hunting."

I immediately pull out my scroll and sure enough, in the upper right hand corner there are two numbers written there. 02. Group 2, so that means I'll be in a team with anyone else that's in the same group.

I tap the number and it brings me to a screen of sixteen squares. The images load and I recognize a few faces.

I smile when I see Arin and Sam on the same page. But immediately below them I see Raymond and his thugs.

 _Damnit_ , I think myself, _what if I get put into a team with them? There's no way I wouldn't kill myself then._

I felt the wind knocked out of me when someone slapped me on the back a bit too hard.

"You ready for testing?" Sam says in her usual cheery tone.

I groan, "I hope so. I mean, I don't want to get placed in a team with people I dislike, especially when Raymond's crew is in the same division as us."

Arin glances over at the four boys that attacked us yesterday, thankfully they haven't noticed us. Raymond Irvin, first-year, jerk. That's the extent of my knowledge on the guy. His other thugs are Orion, Maximillian, and Lawrence, all of which seem to be bigger and stronger than me; physically, that is.

Arin scowls and balls up her fists, she looks like she wants to punch the guys in the teeth. I hold her back, "It's not worth getting into another fight. Unless they provoke us first, it's better off picking fights when we're in the Emerald Forest."

Arin nods and unclenches her fist, but I can still see the anger in her eyes, "When's our time?" She asks, changing the subject.

I glance at the scroll once more, "It says 11:00, we could catch lunch afterwards."

Sam nods enthusiastically, "Great! We better get ready, 11:00's not too far off. C'mon Arin, let's go!" She grabs Arin's hand and pulls her away.

"Wait… Woah!" She doesn't finish her sentence. She waves goodbye and I casually salute back. I'm instantly reminded of the dream I had the night before. I shake my head, trying my hardest to forget about it. _They're gonna be fine_ , I reassure myself, _just fine_.

* * *

We stand before Ozpin on silver squares. He looks at each one of us carefully, analyzing us. He stops a few steps away from me and looks at a boy with blond hair, "Luther Yahto," he says, "Welcome to Beacon."

"Thank you sir," the Luther kid says formally.

He continues down the line and stops only a few times to glance at a few of us. "The test will take place in the Emerald Forest below." He gestures to the forest beyond the cliff, "at the northernmost point of the forest will be a set of relics. You are to retrieve one, and only one, and return to the top of the cliff as fast as possible. You will be graded accordingly."

Sam raises her hand, "what about teams?"

"Teams will be arranged later on after initiation," Ozpin adds, "Remember, do not hesitate to destroy anything in your path, or you will die."

Goodwitch stepped forward, "Your scrolls are equipped with a tracking device. You may activate the map function on the scroll to get a lay of the land as well as the location of other initiates." She takes out her own scroll and displays a holographic map of the forest. The southern most point has eighteen blue dots which I assume are us. The temple is highlighted at the end of the forest. "If there are no more questions we will begin testing."

"Good," Ozpin says, "Let us begin."

The leftmost panel flies open, sending the first initiate flying into the air. So we're going to be flung into the forest? Doesn't seem so efficient or affective to say the least.

Sam smirks as she puts one foot forward. She winks at me and a second later, she's gone.

Arin seems a bit uneasy. It's easy to tell that this wasn't what she was expecting at all, but she seems confident. She turns to me and with a reassuring glance, she's off.

My turn. I brace myself and take stance. Soon enough the panel below me ejects me into the air with great speed and I find it hard to keep form. And I'm falling.

"Woahhhh," I activate my gauntlets , which assemble around my hands. It begins to glow a green tint as it powers on and propels me forward with the power of air dust.

"WOOOO!" I whoop as I fly through the air. I squint my eyes as it's hard to keep them open with all this drag.

I close my eyes for just a second and I begin to loose control. I'm loosing altitude, fast. Soon enough, I'm hitting the tops of trees and crashing through tree branches. I stick my hand hands in front of me and blast wind out of the gauntlets. The strategy slows me down a bit, but not enough. I hit the ground, roll, and slide against the dirt.

I groan as I get up and dust myself off. I'm covered in scrapes and bruises, I give aura healing a shot. A white glow surrounds my body as the cuts close and the bruises dissipate. It's a temporary solution as I don't have complete control over my semblance yet. The cuts and bruises come back after a while, but much less severe.

I sigh and my gauntlets collapse back into their inactive form. "Which way is north," I ask myself, pulling out my scroll. The compass says its to my left, which I follow.

After a few minutes of walking, I hear a rustling in the distance. "Hello?" I call out, "anyone there?" More rustling, no response. I activate my gauntlets once again in case it really is a Grimm. I push past the bushes and my eye catches movement on my right.

"Who's there?" I call out again, "Sam, if that's you this is not funny!" I try to joke, but it comes out sounding weak.

I hear growling behind me. Grimm, I frown. I turn around, ready to blast it's face away when something whizzes past my ear. The Grimm that stands before my is frozen in place with a single black dot on its forehead. A bullet hole? The creature collapses to the ground with a loud thud and turn back to look for the sniper.

I feel a presence move behind cover roughly 200 meters ahead of me and I run.

Whoever this is, they're fast. I sprint through the forest, pushing away branches and jumping over logs.

I see the end of the forest and feel relieved, whoever it is they've got to be there.

My foot hits a rock and I trip again, skidding to a stop. I groan and look forward, I've reached the end? This is, another cliff? I stand up and lean against a tree that stranger is nowhere to be found. Whoever it was may have saved my life back there. I peer over the second cliff to get a view of my surroundings when I remember the map Goodwitch had offered us.

I pull it out hurriedly and the hologram flickers to life. A blue dot stands in the middle of the map next to a small drop, I'm guessing that's me. Most of the other initiates are behind me but there're a few that are in the lead. All of them, however, seem too far off to have been the sniper.

I'm not too far off from the temple now. I lock my scroll and return it to my pocket. I look over the edge of the cliff, it's not too high. Might as well give it a shot. I lean back and let the wind rush past me. I put my hands at my sides and blast wind out of my gauntlets. _I saw this in a movie once_. I begin to slow down and begin hovering as I approach the ground. Tricky part is landing. My gauntlets deactivate, and I hit the floor. I stumble a bit but I don't fall. I've gotta work on that landing, I jog towards the temple.

The forest opens up into a clearing once more, in the center stands five stone pillars surrounding smaller stone pedestals, each holding a small object. I take a closer look and get a better view of the relics.

"Cards?" I look at the thin cards standing on end. _They're playing cards? I only see face cards though._

I scour the collection of relics as I know that once I pick one up it will be bound to me. Kings, queens, and jacks of all four suits. I realize all the aces are missing. I come upon the only ace card I see, the ace of spades, and pick it up. I feel my scroll vibrate. As I unlock it once more, the screen displays a line of text: **Terence Cordovan, Ace of Spades**. The map now displays the shapes above three other initiates, they're all aces. The one in the lead seems to be the ace of cloves, who appears to be the closest to returning to the start.

I'm about the head back when I hear a scream. The map shows an imitate not far from my location, westward. I sprint towards the scream with my gauntlets at the ready.

I'm surprised when a girl runs past me in the opposite direction and I skid to a stop. I scratch my head as the trees behind me give way to a massive Grimm scorpion breaks through the tree line.

"Oh dear," I sigh, two glowing blue orbs forming in the palms of my hand, dust enhanced aura spheres. I chuck the spheres at the scorpion, creating ice explosions on impact. It slows down the Deathstalker but it doesn't stop it.

The screaming girl seems to have regained her confidence as she now stands next to me two whips in hand. She cracks the whips at the scorpion's claws which actually pushes back the Deathstalker.

An opening, I run at the creature, another aura blast charging up, and launch myself into the air. I latch onto the head of the scorpion and punch it a few times to get it's attention.

"What are you doing?" The girl screams at me, "Do you want to die?"

"Not really," I reply, punching it's head a few more times. It notices me and tries to shake me off. I use the armor on its head as a grip and hold on as the scorpion violently tries to get rid of me.

The Deathstalker then lunges its stinger at me. I jump out of the way as the stinger pierces the plating. The giant scorpion falls down, lifeless, and dissipates into smoke.

I lie down on my back and laugh, "Yeah!"

"Holy dust that worked," the girl with the whips stands over me, "that was a stupid move ya' know."

"Yeah but it worked," I dust myself off, "thanks for the assist back there. Those whips seemed really effective."

A smug grin tugs at her lips, "Don't mention it, the name's Sadie."

"Terence," I reply and turn back towards the forest, "I better get going. You should too."

"Right," Sadie nods, "good luck out there."

"You too," I return to the forest.

* * *

A few seconds later, my scroll dings and another shape appears on the map, a queen of cloves, _probably Sadie_. The other initiates seem to be closing in on the temple as I'm headed in the opposite direction. I might even run into another initiate at this point.

I don't. The forest seems quieter than before, no sounds of gunfire or the clashing of weapons. No growling of Grimm or my stomach. A breeze blows fallen leaves past my feet as I walk through the forest. If you ignore all the monsters and death scattered around, the Emerald Forest actually seems like a peaceful place where you might go for a picnic.

 _That's a terrible idea_ , I think to myself and continue my path.

My stroll is interrupted by a crack of a branch. I stop suddenly, scouring my surroundings. Nothing in sight, I continue to walk back towards the start. Another crack.

I use my gauntlets to pull a breeze into ground level, and I hear the flutter of clothes to my right.

There you are. Realizing his position has been given away, he steps out into the open.

Luther? It's the guy Ozpin addressed up on the cliff. What's he doing following me? He holds a large sniper rifle in his hands. Attached to the barrel is a blade. Gunblade, impressive.

"You found me," he says in a low voice, "Congratulations."

"Why're you following me?" I ask.

"I was just confirming my suspicions," Luther states, "seems I was right."

Right? Right about what? I change the subject, "You better get going, temple's thataway." I point behind me.

He chuckles, "I am aware. However, I've already received my relic." He holds up a card; the King of Spades.

 _Spades, same as mine_ , "Well that's great! I better be going then. See ya!" I dart into the shrubbery and back on path towards the start. For a moment there I had forgotten that they were scoring us. He seemed kind of strange to me, but I have to recall that I kind of looked that way to Sam and Arin when I first met them. What suspicions was he talking about? I push the thought aside, initiation first.

* * *

The forest begins to slope upward as I get closer to the start. I open up the map, it appears that all the other initiates have retrieved their relics and have begun to make their way back. I see the three other spades scattered around the forest. The king, which I recognize as Luther, and the other spades aren't too far behind me.

Ahead of me seems to be a set of ruins that've seen many battles. I trace the damage on one of the pillars and come across a black hair stuck inside the crack.

Curious, I retrieve the hair. It's not a hair.

 _What the hell is this_? A screech snaps me out of my though as I spot a horde of Grimm.

I duck behind a pillar to avoid them. I didn't get a good look so I peek out. _Are those Creeps? What are Creeps doing in the Emerald Forest?_

I hear a rustling from a pair of bushes close to the pillar I hid behind.

"Whoever's there please help," I grow more and more worried.

More rustling, _God I hope it isn't another Grimm_. Then a fake growl comes from the bush.

"Goddamnit Sam, get out here and help."

Laughter comes from behind the bush as Sam stands up, "Hey, it was actually me— Woah!" I pull her next to me behind the pillar.

"Quit fooling around," I peek around the corner again, "what do you have to help?"

"I got these," twirling her batons which were crackling with electricity, "but they're for melee only."

The thought of electricity sparked an idea in my mind. _Ha, puns_. With my gauntlets I can create water powered attacks with water dust. Thing is, it's pure water, no other particles. Pure water by itself can't conduct electricity, right?

"Sam is there any way you can stir up the dust and dirt on the floor?" I ask. She disappears with a burst of wind and reappears a few seconds later.

"Uh," I look behind her and at the massive dust cloud enveloping the Grimm, "What?"

"I'm quick," Sam shrugs smugly.

"Alright, that's good," I ready my gauntlets, "I'm going to need you for something else."

"Your call," Sam takes stance behind me.

I switch my gauntlets to water dust and lob an aura sphere into the dust cloud. Hopefully it picks up that debris and covers a large enough area.

"Sam," I turn to her, "We're going to run in, you're going to shock the floor, we're going to take down the Creeps when they're paralyzed, and hopefully not die."

Sam raises her hand in the air like a student in a classroom, "I have a question."

"Shoot."

"What are Creeps?"

I sigh, "Creeps are mutated Grimm that stand on their two hind legs and have no forelimbs."

"Oh," Sam taps her chin, "Oh! You mean those dinosaur-looking things?"

"Sure," I say, "Whatever floats your boat."

We peek around the pillar once more, the dust has settled and the Creeps stand in a shallow pool of water. We sprint towards the beasts, well, I sprint and Sam just disappears as she whizzes past me. She does a front-flip, touching the water slightly with the batons, and then launches herself out of the area.

I see the electricity take effect as the Grimm twitch and spasm and I ready my gauntlets to uppercut one in the face.

Doesn't really go to plan as the Creeps recover faster than I had anticipated. The Creep turns quickly and headbutts me into the dirt.

Sam stops abruptly at my side, "You alright?" She helps me up.

"I'm fine," the Grimm are angry now, great, "guess we'll have to do this the hard way."

"The hard way's always more fun though," Sam twirls her batons.

She's got a good point, we charge at the Grimm, weapons ready.

I punch a Creep out of the way. As it flies backwards it suddenly jerks to the right and lands on the ground, lifeless. Another bullet hole.

I look to my left, there stands Luther with his eye in the sights of this rifle. He gives me a thumbs up and returns to sniping the Grimm.

I grin, we're gonna need all the help we can get. I feel a presence behind me and I turn just in time to punch a Creep into the ground.

"Hey!" I hear a voice shout. I turn to see Arin running to us, "Hit the floor!"

Sam literally does a belly flop on the floor, barely dodging a bite from a Creep, while I jump forward and roll to dodge my own Creep.

Arin unsheathes one of her rapiers. Taking stance, she charges and slashes at the air. An invisible wave passes right over our heads and slices right through some of the Grimm, disintegrating them into smoke.

I get up and nod at Arin, who returns it. "Great!" She says, "the gang's all here."

Luther speaks up, "I never signed up to be part of this 'gang'…"

"Doesn't matter," I count up the remaining Grimm, "What does matter is that we take care of these Creeps."

"Already ahead of you," Sam zooms off to fight. We chase after her, taking down the Grimm one after the other.

"Terence!" Arin pierces a Grimm, but jumps back, "Switch!"

I jump in and give it an ice jump in the face. It flies back and dissolves.

"Nice!" We high five, "I think that might've been the last one."

"Now what?" Luther approaches us, he points at the cliff, "how do we get up there?"

I scratch my head and open the ammo storage of my gauntlets. I scroll through the different crystals when I get to a green crystal. It seemed to still be in good shape. I close the compartment.

"I might have any idea," I say, activating my gauntlet. Once again, they glow a green color and I raise my hands. The winds swirl at our feet, growing faster and faster.

"Uh," Luther seems skeptical, "is this safe?"

"Sure it is," Arin reassures him, "right Terence?"

I don't answer as I'm trying to concentrate on lifting us off the ground. We achieve lift and we hover above the ground, the atmospheric pressure beneath our feet keeping us in the air. I lift my hands and we fly higher along the cliffside.

When we reach the top, the others hop off before I take my leave. I give a sigh a relief as my feet touch the ground once again. I was really nervous that half minute we were in the air. Sam seems in worse shape as she's clutching her knees away from the cliff.

"Welcome back," Professor Ozpin greets us, "three others have returned before you four. I have to say, I am impressed by your coordination together as a group."

"Pshh," Sam waves him off, she seems to have recovered, "that was nothing."

Ozpin smiles, "Whatever it was, you four did well. You man return to the campus. Your teams will be announced tomorrow."

* * *

"I'm telling you," Sam says with a mouthful of food, "those four jerks are going to be grouped into a team. Guaranteed."

I hold my hands up in defense, "Alright, alright." I hadn't run into any of Raymond's gang back in the forest, so I'm not worried about being placed in the same team as them.

"Don't worry about it, Terence," Arin puts her hand on my shoulder, "we've done what we can. Now we just have to wait."

Luther smiles, "You guys did well back there."

"Thank you," I say, "you did as well. Oh, and thanks for the save in the forest."

He seems confused and then remembers, "Oh that! That was nothing; easy pickings, I took the shot."

Sam stretches and yawns, "well, that was tiring. I'm going to take a nap. See you guys at dinner."

"See ya Sam," we wave good bye. Luther gets up next, "I gotta restock on some ammo, I'll be leaving too."

He walks out of the hall, leaving Arin and I by ourselves.

"Back there," Arin twirls a fork, "How did you do it?"

"It?" I ask, "you mean the lift? I'm not too sure myself."

"I'm curious as to how your gauntlets work," she leans on her arm, "what do they do?"

"Well," I say, unlocking the device and placing it on the table. I begin to talk about my semblance and how the gauntlets amplify and enhance it.

In the back of my mind I'm worried about teams, but that'll all be settled by tomorrow. Right now, I just have to worry about what to do before dinner.

Tomorrow's going to be pretty eventful.

 **End of Chapter 2**

* * *

 **Authors Note: Whoo! Finally done! This a bit longer than the last chapter cause I kinda got carried away on the ten hour plane ride. Honestly, I feel like that last part in the Emerald Forest was a bit rushed. I need to work on my battle scenes and fighting techniques. That aside, I'm going to write some more over this short winter break that I have so I might be able to get another chapter in by the end of the week. Some of Terence's past and abilities was revealed, but I'm probably going to wait a bit before I reveal everything. Again, if you guys spot any errors, have any requests, or just want to give constructive criticism, please do not hesitate to DM me. Also, please follow story if you want to receive any updates to when I post a new chapter.**

 **That's pretty much it I think. Thanks for reading. 'Till next time.**

 **-T**


	3. Team Building

**Chapter 3: Team Building**

 **Authors Note: Hello for the third time! I'll try not to get carried away with this chapter, because my phone gets laggy when I try to upload a huge chapter. There really isn't much to say. I'm still traveling around, so I can't write as fast as I can on my computer. If you haven't figured out by the name of haven't read the last chapter, I'll be presenting the team rosters in this chapter. I created a total of four teams, each with four OC's. Of course I'm not going to go too in depth with everyone, I'll be focusing on my main characters. That's pretty much it. Happy reading!**

 **Disclaimer: RWBY and all its characters belong to Rooster Teeth!**

* * *

 **Arin**

Another dawn, another day. I stretch as I rise from my sleeping bag. It's nice to know that from today forward we'll get actual beds in dorms.

I glance over at Sam, who's sprawled across her open sleeping bag in her over-sized yellow t-shirt, snoring away.

I look around the room, everyone else is snoring away as well. Terence's sleeping bag lays open and empty. He's gone again.

Just then, Terence appears around the corner, barefoot, and wearing a maroon tee and grey gym shorts. He waves at me and I wave back. He gestures for me to come to him and I tip toe around the sleeping mass of first years to join him.

"What are you doing up so early?" I whisper, "the sun's just come up."

"I could ask you the same thing," he retaliates, "I was just going up to the roof to get some fresh air."

"This early?" I raise an eyebrow, "I'm coming with you."

Terence shrugs, "Alright, we gotta pass through the dorms though."

We walk upstairs, the carpet softening our footsteps. The corridor upstairs was lined with doors, dorms I guessed. We walked past the doors to reach the stairs on the other side.

Behind one of the doors we heard a bark. A dog?

"Zwei, shut up. It's too early." A voice on the other side says. The dog barks again.

"What is it boy?" A higher pitched voice asks the dog. Terence and I walk past the room as the door swings open.

"Hey, you were right. There were people here!" A petite girl stands at the door. She seems unusually pale, wearing a black tank top and white sweats with roses on them.

"Good morning," the girl greets us. She looks a bit young to be at this school, "I haven't seen you two before. You guys first-years or something?"

Terence responds, "Yeah, we are. Sorry for disturbing your sleep, we were just trying to get to the roof."

"Well, I won't hold you back," the girl seems awfully happy so early in the morning, "good luck with teams!" She closes the door.

More voices, "who was that Ruby?"

"No one in particular…"

Terence and I look at each other and laugh, "She reminded me of Sam."

"Right?" I say as we continue along the corridor, "so, about teams…"

"Don't worry about it," Terence takes the railing as we walk up the stairs, "Ozpin'll explain it all later on."

We reach the rooftop where the rising sun made the sky different shades of pink and purple. "It's beautiful up here," I breathe.

"Yeah, it is," Terence hops down and sits on the edge of the building.

I take a seat next to him, "what do you do up here?"

"Just appreciate the view," he swings his feet around, "take a breather, yell at the world, whatever you want to do."

I do just that. I take a deep breath and watch the sun rise and the sky change colors. All worries of teams left my mind.

* * *

"Ryane Bianca, Arthur Hinto, Sadie Ianthina, and Flynn Shao Qing," the pictures of the four initiates appear on the screen above Ozpin. The four of them step on stage, "You chose the Clove Cards, and will be known as Team SAFR [ **Sapphire** ]. Led by Sadie Ianthina." Applause erupts around the auditorium.

Next to me, Terence whispers to himself, "Ryane Bianca," as if testing the name. Maybe he's familiar with her.

They leave the stage as Ozpin announces the second group, "Maximilian Cole, Lawrence Duncan, Raymond Irvin, and Orion Zilar," we watch as the four step on stage with smug grins on their faces, "You chose the Diamond Cards, and will be known as Team MORL [ **Morel** ]. Led by Maximilian Cole." The applause that followed seemed to be slightly quieter.

"Next up," the pictures on screen change and rearrange, "Natalie Akane, Brian Conway, Lilly Huong, and Colin Porphyrios. You chose the Heart Cards, and will be known as Team CLBN [ **Columbine** ]. Led by Colin Porphrios."

 _Finally, our turn_. "Lastly for division two," Ozpin announces, "Samantha Aurum, Terence Cordovan, Arin Steele, and Luther Yahto." We step on stage. My hands are shaking and I look over at my teammates. Sam is giddy with excitement, Luther has his arms crossed but seems content, and Terence is also trying to keep his hands from shaking by sticking them in his pockets. "You chose the Spade Cards, and will be known as Team ATLS [ **Atlas** ]. Led by Arin Steele."

 _Arin Steele_. "M-me?" I stutter, "Why?"

Sam tackles me with a flying hug, "Don't question why, Arin."

"Partners," Professor Ozpin states, "are determined by the face card that you have retrieved. Jack cards will be partnered with Queen cards, while King cards are to be partnered with Ace cards."

Terence and Luther fist bump and Sam keeps hugging me. "We're going to be the best team ever!" She squeals.

"Congratulations," Ozpin says to me in a quiet tone over the applause of the students, "you've got quite the team here."

I look over the other three, all smiling back at me. "Yeah, I guess so."

* * *

"WHOO!" Sam whoops as the door to our dorm room slams open with a kick, "Let's unpack!"

"There's hardly any room in this…" Luther pauses, "room. The beds take up too much space."

"What are you talking about? There's plenty of space," Terence tosses a bag onto one of the beds.

I set down my bag on the next bed over. The room was pretty plain by itself. Four beds, a set of drawers, some tables and chairs, and a bookshelf. I pulled open the curtains and unlocked the window. The cool air rushed into the room as I looked over the campus from our third floor window.

"Enjoying the view?" Terence joins me. Surprisingly, his gauntlets aren't on his wrist.

I nod, "it's good to finally be able to relax after the last few days. That said, did they give us our schedule yet?"

"Here," Luther picks up a piece of paper from a desk, "We have classes starting in an hour."

"What about uniforms?"

"Here!" Sam pulls open the drawers, revealing two sets of girls uniforms and two sets of boys'.

"Sweet," I say, "we're ready for class."

A knock at the door. Sam glances at me and I shrug. We weren't expecting company.

Luther opens the door to be greeted with a barrage of streamers and confetti, "what…"

"Welcome to Beacon!" Hey, it's the same girl Terence and I met this morning. Behind her stands three others. One had white colored hair, another wears a black bow that resembles cat ears, and the tall blonde has large… uh…

"Hey!" The smaller girl points to me, "you're that girl from this morning."

"Hi," I wave and introduce ourselves, "I'm Arin."

"Luther," He does a half bow.

"I'm Samantha," Sam jumps up from the bed and rushes over, "But you can call me Sam."

"And I'm Terence," he salutes casually, "thanks for the welcome."

"Well, I'm Ruby!" Ruby extends her hand to shake, which I do.

"Blake," the black haired girl seemed a bit lost in thought.

"Weiss Schnee," the girl with white hair curtsies.

"I'm Yang," the taller girl thumbs at herself, "We better get to class. You should too."

"We will," they wave goodbye as they start down the hall. They join up with another group of four, another team I guess.

I close the door, "you heard Yang, we better get ready and get to class."

"How are we supposed to change?" Sam holds a uniform in her arms, "I mean…"

"We'll head to the restrooms," Luther drags Terence along as they leave the room.

Once the boys are out of the room we change into our uniforms. I check our schedule, first class of the day is History of Remnant. I keep forgetting that this school doesn't only teach us how to fight, but also other subjects as well.

I sigh, remembering that history was my worst subject. There's another knock on the door.

"You guys done?" Terence calls from the other side.

I pull on my jacket and open the door. Sam whistles when she sees the guys in their uniforms.

"Hey, shut up," Terence points. He picks up his gauntlets from the table and snaps them on.

"You guys look good," Luther says, collapsing his rifle and equipping it to a harness on his back.

"Pshh, nah," Sam laughs, "Look at Arin, she's red as a tomato!"

My hands instantly fly to my face, which to my surprise is hot. The others laugh and I manage to smile, one hell of a team.

* * *

I groan and set my pencil down. I'm already bored to death. My notes are getting messier by the minute and my hand is cramping up. My page is filled with more doodles than notes. I can't keep up with how the four nations are right now, less so a few hundreds of years ago.

A ball of paper hits me on the back of my head. I turn, Terence sits a seat above me, but he seems to be concentrating on whatever the teacher is saying and taking notes diligently. A few more seats up is Sam, who is giggling like a madman.

I assume it's Sam, and open the paper ball. It's hard to read with all the wrinkles, but I can make out Sam's small handwriting. _Hello partner! -S_

I sigh, really? _When does this class end? –A,_ I write. I ball up the paper again and toss it over my shoulder. It bounces onto Terence's table and he immediately opens it, scribbles something, and tosses it back down.

 _We got ten min –T_. I look around, realizing that Luther isn't anywhere to be seen. I finally spot him towards the front, nodding off.

"Mr. Yahto," The professor says sternly. His name is written on the board but I can't make it out.

"Yes professor?" Luther snaps awake.

"Can you tell me why the territories of Mountain Glenn were overrun by Grimm while Vale was not?" he asks in a rather quick manner.

Terence's hand shoots up, but Luther manages to answer, "Mountain Glenn did not have the same natural barriers as Vale and was far more vulnerable to the attacks of Grimm than the rest of the kingdom."

The rest of the class seemed surprised. The bell rings, and we all get up instantly.

"Read chapter one, sections two through four for homework tonight!" The professor states loudly over the students leaving the room.

Terence is organizing his papers when I plop down next to him, "Jeez, how many notes did you take? And how could you make out anything he said, he was speaking so fast."

He glances at his papers and shrugs, "not sure. What do we have next?"

"Grimm Studies with Professor Peter Port," I read off my scroll, "Great, another useless class."

"Can't be that bad," Terence slings his bag over his shoulder, "I heard Port likes to go on about his experiences and battles with Grimm, so you could always use it as a free period."

Sam and Luther join us, "You okay, man?" Terence puts a hand on Luther's shoulder.

"I'm good," he responds, yawning, "just a bit tired. Didn't get that much sleep last night, I was up reading."

"What is with you guys and reading?" Sam exclaims, "it's like you guys are a bunch of buzz-kills."

We laugh, "we should get to class if we want to get seats next to each other this time," I say. The others nod and we make our way across campus.

* * *

"Good morning," a stout professor dressed in brown stands in front of us, "I am Professor Peter Port and this is Grimm Studies."

The four of us now sit in a row, where Sam sits to my right and Terence and Luther sit to my left.

"Give it like two seconds," Terence whispers. _Huh? Two seconds for what?_

"Open your textbooks to page thirty-seven," the sounds of pages turning fills the room, "here you will observe the anatomy of a Boarbatusk."

"Dammit," Terence pulls out two lien and slides it to a smirking Luther.

"As you can see," Port continues, "the Boarbatusk is covered in armored plating. Once, I had to face a large horde of these foul creatures and…"

I began to tune out what he was saying. The two boys' eyes light up, Luther with a look of astonishment on his face.

Terence laughs silently as Luther slides the lien back, returning the money they were betting.

Sam scoffs to my left, _boys_ , she mouths.

I giggle, something strange coming from me, and flip to an empty page in my notebook. Naturally, I take my pencil and begin to sketch, occasionally listening in to Port's speech to make sure he's still ranting about his adventures. He is.

I feel a tap on my right shoulder, Terence leans scoots closer to peek at my notebook.

I move it away, as I hadn't finished my sketch. It had been of Sam in a fighting stance. I thought that maybe if I drew my teammates fighting I might be able to understand their techniques and thought processes.

Terence scoots back next to Luther where they continue to play a game of air hockey on their scrolls.

As I turn back, I realize my notebook's gone. Sam is flipping through the pages frantically, staring at all my sketches.

"Hey!" I whisper, taking the book from her hands, "who said you could look though this?"

"But Arin," she pleads, "it looks so _good_! You never told me you could draw."

"That's because we've known each other for _three days!_ " I exclaim quietly, "and it never came up…"

"Fine," Sam crosses her arms and pouts, "where'd you learn to draw like that?"

"Uh," I close the book and move it away, "I took art lessons as a kid. Painting and sketching, though I'd rather use a pencil than a brush."

"What else have you drawn in there?" Sam tries snatching the book once more, but fails.

I flip to a page filled with doodles, "I dunno, just whatever comes to mind." The page is filled with cartoon Grimm and doodles of various teachers at my old school.

"Is that…" Sam leans over as I flip through the pages.

"Hmm?" I look at where she's pointing. She's peering at a large sketch that covered the whole page. It's a forest with four figures huddling around a camp fire."

"Oh this?" I flip the page quickly, "I remember it from a dream I had once, so I put it on paper. That was a while ago."

"Oh," Sam returns to her seat, "Hey Arin?"

"What's up?" I glance over to Port, who's _still_ ranting.

Sam looks sad for a split second, but returns back to her normal self. She waves me off, "never mind, it's nothing," she smiles.

Felt like she was going to tell me something there. "Alright," if she wants to tell me, she will, in time.

The rest of class passes pretty uneventfully. The boys occasionally groaning or cheering quietly for either their win or loss at a handheld game, or Professor Port suddenly shouting to emphasize the importance of one specific part to his story. I had stopped doodling and actually paid attention to his story. Not soon after did I begin to nod off.

* * *

The bell rings and I snap awake.

"—and I… Oh… Well that tale will have to wait. Please study the contents of the first chapter as you will have a quiz by the end of the week," Port finishes.

Displeased moans fill the room as the students around us file out of class. We do so as well, following Luther as he's closest to the door.

"If I remember correctly," Terence twirls his pen, "We have Battle Training with Goodwitch next."

A glance at my scroll tells me he's right. The class is held in an elevated room where the seats are higher up and view a small scrimmage area below.

"Huh," Luther says as we enter the room, "There are an awful lot of people in this room."

"Maybe people from all different years are mixed in the same room." I point out.

"Over there," Terence points, "isn't that Ruby?"

Without hesitation, Sam cups her hands to her mouth, "RUBY!"

Startled, many other students turn our way. Luther, Terence, and I take a step back from Sam. It does appear to be Ruby, as she turns when her name is called. Not only that, Weiss, Blake, and Yang are there too. Not surprising though, as they're all one team.

Ruby waves at us and we join them at the front row. "Hey guys," Ruby says rather giddily, "You're in this class too?"

I take a seat and set my rapiers down next to me, I brought them solely for this class. "Yeah! So what do we do in this class anyways?"

"Goodwitch pits us against each other in a fight to the death," Blake says not looking up from her book.

Yang cuts her off, "What Blake means is that Goodwitch chooses a few of us to spar."

"She then proceeds to make us look like fools as she points out all of our weak points," Weiss is filing her nails.

"I think it's really fun!" Ruby shifts in her seat, leaning over the balcony.

"Welcome students," Goodwitch's voice booms from below, "Welcome to the first class of the year. We will begin with a practice round. I will choose two students in this class to spar. Before we begin, do we have any volunteers?"

The blond boy sitting in front of Yang raises his hand. Goodwitch completely glosses over him, ignoring his raised hand.

He puts his hand down and sighs. Yang reaches over, "Next time, Arc. Next time."

"No volunteers?" I swear I saw a second where Goodwitch smirked at that Arc kid, "Ms. Shao Long, would you be willing to fight?"

"Hell yeah!" Yang bolts up immediately. She slides over the railing and jumps down to the stage below.

"Language!" Goodwitch hisses as Yang bounds on stage. The screen above displays her photo as well as her Aura level.

"Next!" Goodwitch searches the crowd for a suitable opponent. She looks directly in our direction once again.

"Young man," she says sternly, "what is your name?"

Sam and I scoot away from the two boys. Luther points at himself, but the professor shakes her head and gestures next to him.

"Me?" Terence stands, "uh, Terence Cordovan, first-year."

"Mr. Cordovan, are you willing to fight Ms. Shao Long here?"

"Uh," Terence seems nervous. Fighting someone one year two years older than us _and_ had more experience.

His composure changes. He grins, "Sure, I could go for a round or two."

"Uhhh..." Sam whispers to me, "he seems different."

"I think it's an act," Luther states, "To make himself tougher than he appears to be."

Terence slides over the banister and jumps down to the stage as well, following Yang's example. His profile appears on screen as well.

"Nice!" Yang's pumped. The two bump fists and the yellow bracelets on Yangs wrists assemble into something that appears to be a shotgun.

Terence's expression says it all, _shock-gauntlets_. He's surprised, but he doesn't back down. It occurs to me that Yang doesn't know that he uses gauntlets as well, as the devices are hidden under the sleeves of his jacket.

"Are you ready?" Goodwitch asks as she steps off the stage. The two combatants retreat to opposite sides of the stage. Yang puts her hands in front of her in a punching stance. Terence, on the other hand, stands there with his hands on his sides. The tension in the room shifts as the two face off.

"May the best brawler win," Terence shouts to Yang. She nods to him and cocks he gauntlets.

"If there no objections," Goodwitch activates a transparent, protective, wall, "we will begin the match."

The screen above now shows a number counting down. 5.

I gulp, Terence seems calm. 4.

"Whoo!" Ruby shouts, "Go sis!" 3.

"Give it all you got!" Luther retaliates. 2.

"Don't die," I say under my breath. 1.

"Begin," an automated voice broadcasts across the room and Yang charges across the stage.

 **End of Chapter 3**

* * *

 **Authors Note: Short, simple, rolls of the tongue? Hopefully. I'm really sorry for the delay. After about halfway through this chapter, my family moved to a different hotel, this one with terrible Wi-Fi. So I wasn't able to upload this when I had actually finished. (12/25/2015 wow Christmas Day!) Finally, some action with Team RWBY. I know it's not much, but they'll be making appearances now and then as will Team JNPR and other teams as well (CRNL and CFVY). I hope their introduction wasn't too strange or rushed. I realize I tend to rush a bit when I'm writing a chapter on a freaking bus. I just remembered, Zwei. As of the official timeline, this story takes place in Team RWBY's second year at Beacon and the events of Season 3, maybe late Season 2, have been overridden. So, no season maidens and no shock-gauntlet to the knee. That's pretty much all I have to say for now. Please review to give any suggestions and follow the story as I don't have a set upload schedule.**

 **Thanks for reading, 'till next time.**

 **-A**


	4. A Fight for the Ages

**Chapter 4: A Fight for the Ages**

 **Authors Note: Good news! Well, kinda. I finally sat down and wrote out an entire timeline of events for the rest of this story. I have a sense of direction, but it is subject to change. Like, really frequently. I've decided to only allude to the pasts of my main OCs and not completely reveal them. This is so progress can be made and seen. I will reveal their pasts, eventually, if you choose to read for that long. In this story I'm going to focus of building my characters and setting the stage for further story elements and such.**

 **Moving on from long term. If you need a refresher for the last chapter or can't tell from the title of this chapter, today is Cordovan vs. Shao Long! I'm writing this AN before I write the chapter so I have no clue how it's going to turn out. Hopefully well. Without further ado, let us begin and happy reading!**

 **[Edit: I'm so sorry for the long delay, Halfway through writing this chapter I got writers block and then school started and I was bombarded with things like Track and tests and grades and ugh… Again, I'm sorry for the delay and I wish you guys don't kill me… That is if anyone is actually reading this story…]**

 **Disclaimer: RWBY and all its characters belong to Rooster Teeth!**

* * *

 **Terence**

I think I done goofed.

What was I _thinking_? Sparring against Yang Shao Long of all people!

Yet, I feel oddly confident. Like I can find a way to beat her. Exploit a weakness or pull a trick.

I watch nervously as the timer counts down. She readies her fists, her own gauntlets cocking and ready to fire. I put one foot forward and take stance. I put my fists in front of me, my gauntlets inactive. 3.

I take a deep breath. 2.

No turning back. 1.

"Begin," the automated voice chimes and I watch as Yang charges. My instincts take over and I take steps backward to avoid her rapid punches, each one getting closer and closer to my face.

She expects me to keep retreating, so I duck down and sweep my leg under her, causing her to trip up and stumble backwards.

"Tricky," Yang says, "I can see why Glynda chose you."

"You're not too bad yourself," I say, getting back up, "Powerful, I've got to say."

"Don't get too relaxed there," Yang punches, sending bullets my way.

Stunned for a moment, I can't dodge the bullets. They blow me back and I hit the wall, creating a dust cloud. I can hear the sound of the aura bar on the screen go down and gasps in the crowd.

I sit up, footsteps approaching fast. I dodge out of the way as another barrage of bullets hits the wall. I cough as I emerge from the cloud of debris.

"Found you!" Yang shouts as she jumps from above, her fist clenched and ready to serve a devastating blow.

I stick my hands in front of me to defend myself. A transparent curvature appears before my hands as I block off Yang's assault from above.

Her fist collides with the shield. She's surprised, but doesn't lose her composure. She uses the shield to push off as she does a somersault and lands gracefully.

"Careful there," she wags her finger at me, "your semblance is showing."

"What gave it away?" I think of how to fight her. I can't retaliate without using my own gauntlets, but I need to find a weakness.

She grins and launches forward once again. I block a punch, and another, and another. _Jeez, this girl punches hard_.

I catch one of her punches and not even a second after, it fires. I manage to dodge most of the bullet as it grazes my arm.

I roll out of the way, slowly backing into a corner. _Great_.

I kick off one of the corners and jump off the other, vaulting over her. I roll and use an aura shield to force her back, reversing our roles.

Unfortunately, the shield doesn't hold for long as she literally takes two punches to the barrier and it's down.

"Almost had me there," Yang says with a smirk.

"Yeah, I'd really hoped so too," I run in the opposite direction.

"Oh no you don't," Yang sprints up behind me and jumps in the air, another aerial assault.

I barely manage to dodge as she punches the floor behind me, sending shock waves throughout the stage.

A shockwave knocks me back once more; I need to think more offensively. _What can I use to my advantage?_

As I take a second, Yang's already running up for a drop punch on me. Drop punch? Wait… I might have something…

I cross my fingers and hope I haven't screwed up.

"Given up already?" Yang's almost at me now, "but we've only just begun."

As I predict, she lunges upwards and readies a shot downwards, straight at me. My gauntlets take a second to assemble and I shoot to my right, sending me sliding backwards. She wasn't expecting that. I quickly switch dusts and take two ice shots, one colliding with her left fist and the other her ankle.

She lands and rolls, cracking the ice, "Ooo fancy."

"Well you can't be the only person who loves to punch things," I respond, my gauntlets switch to fire.

Yang shouts as she charges forwards. Now that I have my gauntlets out, I can block her effectively. Her punches as deflected as I return them with my own.

She seems to grow angrier. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing as I might be able to use her anger against her.

She shouts again, louder this time and punches once more. This one _way_ harder. Not only does it send me sliding across the floor, but also engulfs her in flames.

 _Flames? She's fireproof? Or seems like it._ I laugh to myself, I've been using fire dust this entire time and I think I've only been making her stronger.

I switch to ice dust once more to counter her fire. Water wouldn't be much use as there isn't much around and it probably wouldn't last as much with all this heat.

I glance upwards at the display screen; my aura level seems visibly lower than hers. There's a timer but I can't make out the time.

Yang takes my distracted moment to try to gain an advantage as she throws a punch. I sense her presence and lean away just in time for her fist to fly right past my face.

Everything seems to move in slow motion as I return with a blow of my own. It takes her by surprise as the ice blast sends her flying backwards and into the opposing wall.

Whoops and cheers come from the crowd but I know it's not over. But as the dust settles, a silence fills the room as I spot a long strand of bright yellow hair upon the floor before me.

An angry yell surprises me as I block my eyes from the bright ball of flame that stands before me.

"Do you know how long I need to manage this hair!?" Yang screams. I take a step back; _this can't end well_.

She charges out of pure anger. I lunge forward, gauntlet at the ready.

I manage to counter her blow, our fists colliding and on impact sends shock waves through the classroom.

Unfortunately, the wave blows me back too. I land on my feet and charge again; Yang does the same.

I slide as she jumps upwards, both readying our gauntlets. We both fire. I'm able to freeze her shotgun pellets before they reach me, falling to the ground with a clink.

 _She's real angry now, how to use that to my advantage?_ Honestly, at this point I'm not sure. What do I have in my possession to help me.

For a moment, I think of Luther and his fighting style. _Too much range, not enough close combat._ Sam? _Way too many flips._ What about Arin?

Sure I could go for that. I stop to get my bearings. Yang's not that far from me, so I take stance with my fists in front of me.

She's charging. I take a breather.

"AHHH!" She slams her fist down. I kick upwards, using my feet, switching up my fighting style.

This seems to mess her up as I can see her hesitate for a moment. But it's nowhere long enough for me to regain my stance as she throws more punches my way.

I spin, kicking twice at her fists. But this only seems to make myself dizzier. _I don't know how Sam's able to do, like, twenty of these, in a row_.

I land crouched and fire at the flaming Yang. The ice sends her sliding back. _Neither of us are making any headway_.

Once again, I glance upwards at the display. We're both around equal aura levels as I was able to deflect some of her shots and make a few of my own. A good punch so could knock either of us out.

I'm distracted. A good punch is what collides with my face, causing me to fly backwards and hit the wall.

I groan and hold my head. I can hear my scroll beeping rapidly, indicating my extremely low aura level.

Yang is growing stronger by the second, each punch she absorbs, every shot that I make, only makes her stronger. I look into the crowd and spot Arin. She looks worried. _Man, I need to finish this off soon_.

Yang lunches at me and throws herself into the air for the highest drop she's had on me. I put all my strength into my retaliation, using my aura shield and ice blast in the blow.

Our fists collide and we're engulfed in a miniature explosion and immediately surrounded by a huge cloud of smoke.

Gasps fill the classroom as the dust settles and there's a clear victory. Yang stands up straight as I'm slumped against the wall.

"The victory goes to Ms. Shao Long," Goodwitch announces as the screen wall dissipates and the screen displays the results.

"Terence!" Luther jumps down and runs to my side, "you alright?"

He helps me up. I cough, "never better."

"Terence! Oh god you had me worried," Arin approaches as well, Sam not far behind.

"You did good in there!" Sam beams, "You stole that spin kick from me though."

I smile, yeah I've got a great team.

Yang approaches me with her fist out, "You fought well out there, Cordovan. Maybe next time."

We bump fists, "You're pretty good yourself. There's still a long way before I could beat you though."

We laugh, which kinda hurts my chest. Yang puts a hand on my shoulder, "Seriously though, rest up." I guess when she's not an angry ball of fire she's a good person.

* * *

We take our seats back on the balcony and Goodwitch immediately begins with questions.

"Can anyone tell me the reason for Ms. Shao Long's obvious victory?"

"Hey!" I say, slightly offended. I might've had it. I can see what other people meant when they said she brutally attacked our egos.

I student from the other side of the balcony raises her hand, she has bunny ears, "Because Terence was distracted watching the screen, allowing Yang to deal a heavy blow." She's got a strong accent.

"Precisely," Goodwitch looks at me, "Know yourself. Be aware of your own aura level without the help of a counter or your scroll. There is no need to know that of your opponents' as in a real battle you won't have scrolls to assist you."

 _She brings up a good point_. I kept looking up at the screen. I thought it would be more effective than pulling out my scroll, but I can see that it's just as distracting.

"Can anyone else point out another weakness in Mr. Cordovan's fighting style?"

Blake raises her hand calmly, "He changed it midway, starting with punches and then changing to kicks."

Goodwitch nods, "Changing fighting styles mid-battle is risky, but can be effective if done properly. As you saw, Ms. Shao Long did at first have trouble countering the new style, but was able to adapt since Mr. Cordovan didn't seem too familiar with the second fighting style."

 _Gotta get one of the girls to teach me then_ , I glance at Sam and Arin who actually seem to be paying attention.

I take notes as Goodwitch continues to question the students about our battle. Various techniques were discussed as well as the location of our many flaws.

Goodwitch eventually moves on from the match, then discussing the various fighting styles of a hunter. The whole time, I'm taking notes and thinking of ways I could improve my technique. The rest of the class passes rather uneventfully.

* * *

I drop my pen on my desk and shake my hand of cramps. We'd finished our classes and were now back in our dorm working away on the pile of homework given to us on our first day here.

I glance over to my teammates. Sam had already fallen asleep with her head propped up with her arm, Luther was scratching his head with his pencil, and Arin was spacing out, unaware that she was scratching a line into her paper with her pen.

I look back down at the history textbook and third page of notes I had taken. There were papers strewn across my desk which I had no use for.

I pick one up and ball it up. I glance behind me at the small trash can next to the door. I turn back and close my eyes. I can sense it. Even being an object without an aura I can still make out where it is.

I toss the ball over my shoulder and I hear it clink against the metal can.

I get up and open the window, letting in the afternoon breeze.

Arin sneezes. "Oh, sorry. I'll close it," I begin to close the window.

"No, it's fine," Arin rubs her eyes, "It's just allergies."

I leave the window open, but only just a bit. I rub my wrists and haul my luggage onto my bed, I hadn't finished unpacking yet.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Arin get down and plop down face-first into the bed next to mine.

"You ok?"

"History sucks," her muffled voice comes from the bed.

A thud and a yelp come from the tables. We both turn to see that Sam's head had slipped from her hand and had hit the table. Meanwhile, Luther almost had a heart attack as he was concentrating so hard.

I chuckle and open up my bag, huh? Inside was a delivery tube, about a foot long. I shook it and it rattled.

I pop the top off. Two small crystal falls out and onto my bed. A sheet of paper then slips out.

I pick up the crystal and the sheet of paper, _I think you'll find a good use for this,_ it reads. Underneath is a familiar signature that brings a smirk to my lips.

"You seriously wasted a whole sheet of paper for this?" I shake my head. I hold up a crystal into the light, it's a translucent black color. It's got a strange shape though, as if it were cut from a larger crystal.

Arin turns on her bed, "What's that?" Gesturing to the crystal and the note.

"Something from my uncle," I walk over to the table where my gauntlets sit. A press of a button releases the paneling and the insides are exposed. Five dust crystals sit in each of the gauntlets, wind, fire, water, lightning, and ice.

I switch to a blank space and set the crystals inside. A black glow surrounds it for a second as it dims back to its original hue.

"Woah," Arin is crouched next to me now, "And what's that?"

"Crystalline dust," I say, closing the paneling, "More specifically, gravity dust."

"Gravity dust?" Luther's head pops up and he turns in his chair, "How are you supposed to use it?"

Again, I shrug. The gauntlets that I made were experimental and only allowed for me to use a small variety of attacks.

I snap the gauntlets onto my forearms. They hum to life and assemble around my hands. I switch to the new dust variant and a small, dark, orb forms in my palm.

I toss the orb to Luther, just short of his reach. It hits the ground behind his chair. Then it just sits there.

"So… what is it supposed to do?" Luther asks.

I opened my mouth to speak, but the orb began to react. Luther's chair began to tip backwards.

"Woah, woahh!" he wobbles back and forth as the orb tries to pull the chair towards it.

"Terence! Do something!"

"How am I supposed to know what to do?" I laugh. The orb suddenly stops and disappears with an audible pop.

The front legs of Luther's chair touch the floor again and he breaths out of relief.

"That's going to be useful," Arin says patting me on the shoulder, "We'll find a use for it."

"Other than pranking others, I'll come up with something," my gauntlets power down and I set them back down on the table. I glance at my scroll and look through my list of contacts. It's not long, the names of my teammates and one other person.

I open a new message and begin to type. _Thanks for the gift, call when you can._ Send.

I look out the window at the clouds drifting across the sky, _come back soon_.

 **End of Chapter 4**

* * *

 **Author's Note: Ok, ok, I know. I really don't like this last scene with the Gravity dust and the brief intro of Terence's uncle. I just couldn't really find a way to end the chapter as the main point of to have Terence and Yang hash it out. Like I said in the AN above, I'm** ** _extremely_** **sorry for not posting in over a month now… I don't want to bore you guys with excuses. As Volume 3 has come out with more episodes, I'm considering making it part of the story as this is a year after the events of the Yvtal festival. Other than that, I don't have much to say as I'm still kinda disappointed about the second half of the chapter. Hopefully the next chapter will be better. I also might make the chapters shorter because of my schedule and school and whatnot. Please review to give any insight you have about the story and follow as I don't have a set posting schedule made obvious by the month of silence.**

 **Thanks for reading, 'Till next time.**

 **-T**


	5. Remembering

**Remembering**

* * *

Sam rubs her eyes as she wakes up, the others had been calling her.

"What's going on?" she mumbles, "What time is it?"

"Dawn," Arin shakes her, "Get up! We have to get going." The others have already gotten dressed.

"Our scrolls all went off at the same time," Luther held up the device. On the screen displayed a message, _Converge at Main Auditorium_.

"Ozpin called for all teams to meet at the auditorium," Terence laces up his shoes. He equips his gauntlets and lets his jacket sleeves fall over them, "It must be important."

* * *

Luther yawns as the four head down the hallway. "Where's everyone else? This place looks like a haunted house with the dim lights and the lack of people."

"Might've already gone ahead," Arin offers, "Hurry up and we might catch them."

The four head outside and see the mass of students heading towards the auditorium. The lamps were lit and flags were strung from each, they alternated between the emblems of the four nations: Vale, Vacuo, Atlas, Mistral.

They made it to the auditorium where the other teams were gathered. Professor Goodwitch stands on stage with a microphone. The students quiet down as she opens her mouth to speak.

"Good morning to you all," Goodwitch says, "I'm sure many of you know why we have called you today. As for the first years, this is a learning experience for all of us."

The four of team ATLS listen from the back of the crowd, trying to peak over the crowd of people before them.

"The airships will arrive shortly," Goodwitch says calmly, "And when they do, please board in an _orderly_ fashion."

The crowd erupts into conversation and everyone begins to head towards the docks at the same time.

Team ATLS is pushed out of the auditorium and run right into Team SAFR.

"Terence!" Ryane exclaims, "Guys!"

"What's going on?" Flynn asks the rest.

"We're not entirely sure ourselves," Arin raises her voice as the crowds surround them, "Just follow the others, I guess."

The others nod in unison as the two teams make their way over to the docks along with the rest of the school. Multiple airships were already waiting for them and students had already begun to board.

"Stay together," Sam says and glances back at Luther who was two people behind her, "We don't want to be separated."

The two teams board an airship moment before the doors close.

"Thank you for your patience," the automated voice chimed, "We are now beginning our descent to the city of Vale."

"Hey guys," Sadie's pressed against the window, "Look."

Down below, past the giant lake, stood the city of Vale. The city was lit up with lights, even before the sun had risen.

"Looks like we're not the only ones awake," Arthur crosses his arms, "What could be this important?"

* * *

The eight students of Beacon step off the airship. It launches once more and heads back to the school to retrieve more students.

Being aboard one of the first ships to land, the students are greeted by a few Atlesian guards.

"Please follow us," one of the guards says sternly, "We want to get everyone to the square in an orderly manner."

The two teams follow the guards through the streets. Every now and then they would see another Atlesian guard standing at a street corner with their weapon raised.

"Excuse me?" Terence speaks up, "What's with all the security."

The guards remain silent for a moment, debating on whether or not they should answer.

The slightly taller one speaks, "Watching out for Grimm. We don't want anything getting in the way of today's ceremony."

"Ceremony?" Terence mutters to himself. He turns to the rest of his team, but they all shrug.

The town square was crowded. Citizens of Vale stood around a stage and in the balconies surrounding the square. On the stage stood a tall structure, covered with a white sheet.

Arin recognized students not from Beacon, but from Atlas, then Vacuo, and then Mistral.

"The other schools are here," she says to the group. Sam jumps to see over Luther's height.

Terence points to the stage. Now stands Glynda Goodwitch alongside Professor Ozpin, General Ironwood, and what appeared to be Ruby's uncle Qrow. Behind them stand a row of teachers from Beacon and what the group assumed to be teachers from the other schools.

Ozpin steps to the microphone, "We stand here today in honor of a fallen comrade. A man who dedicated countless days to us so that we could stand here together, united. I would like to introduce our guest speaker for today. Please welcome, Vincent Atlas."

The crowd applauds as a young man steps onstage. He has short, dark, hair and wears a pair of black rimmed glasses.

 _He seems oddly familiar_ , Arin thought.

Vincent taps the microphone, "Hello, my name is Vincent. To those not native to these parts, welcome to Vale." The crowd applauds again.

Vincent clears his throat and begins his speech, "Life is an everlasting adventure full of ups and downs. We choose our own path. But sometimes, we encounter something unexpected. A bump, of sorts. Most of the time, we recover. We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and continue along the path. Sometimes, it's not that easy."

At this point, the crowd of people is silent.

Vincent continues, "We stand here today, to honor a man named Monty Oum." The sheet is thrown off and under it stands a stone statue.

Vincent looks back to the crowd, "A young man, yet wise and knowledgeable. Now, I didn't know Monty personally, but he had his impact on me as well. It wasn't until after his death that I learned of his accomplishments. But even after death, Monty still taught me many things. He taught me that not many people are blessed with doing what they want to do in life. But, dreams are only dreams if they aren't put into action. The only thing limiting us from our goals and accomplishments, is time."

Luther glances down at his hands and balls up his fists.

"As far as we know, time only goes one way, and that's forward. In the past, I've made mistakes. And often times, I think about what I would give to undo that mistake. But Monty has taught me that there's no changing the past, only the future. Our past mistakes are what make us who we are. They've shaped us, helped us learn, and impacted us in ways we never could've imagined. To change one's future, however, one must be proactive and step up to the occasion. Today, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Monty, inspiring me to do what I enjoy."

Terence looks at his gauntlets, the details seemed more refined now.

"If it weren't for Monty, none of us would be here today," Vincent glances at Team RWBY who stood close to the stage, "We stand here today, united, to honor the man named Monty Oum. A teacher, a friend, and most importantly, our creator."

Arin blinks away tears.

"And with that, I'd like to end it here. Thank you, Monty Oum, for all that you've done for us. We are honored to have stood by your side until the very end. You may be gone, but you will never be forgotten. Farewell and rest in peace." Vincent takes a step back. The crowd doesn't applaud, but stands there in silence.

Ruby is the first to react, holding up an inactive Crescent Rose into the air. Yang thrusts her fist in the air, followed by Blake and Weiss raising their weapons as well. Next to them, Team JNPR follows suit. Weapons of all shapes, sizes, and designs are held up in the air. Soon enough, the huntsmen and huntresses of the enormous crowd are all holding up their weapons in honor of the late Monty.

Ozpin steps up to the microphone, "Monty Oum. You've created a world beyond worlds. A universe where anything can be possible. A community filled with creativity and imagination. You've brought us all together, and we thank you for that. May you rest in peace."

* * *

 _You may be gone, but you will never be forgotten._

 _Monty Oum 1981-2015_

* * *

 **I didn't start watching RWBY until after the third volume came out, and by that time Monty had already passed away. Even then, it wasn't until a month or so that I had learned of his passing. Monty showed me a world full of monsters and cute girls wielding giant scythes that doubled as sniper rifles, something I've never seen before. It sparked my interest, and soon enough, I was engulfed in the series. So much so that I was inspired to make a team of my own, Team ATLS. Monty's view of time and it being the limiting factor to our own greatness speaks a lot to me. At the end of the day, time is what limits us to what we can accomplish.**

 **Even though I didn't know him, I'm still moved by the things he's done. He's created this huge community of fans who love the show and they come up with incredible content. Fanart, OC's, fanfictions, whatever. It's all great.**

 **Thank you Monty, for all that you've done. Without you, none of this would exist. Team ATLS, SAFR, CLBN, and even MORL, they're all your handiwork. I cannot express how much your work has done for me.**

 **Thank you and may you rest in peace.**

 **Thanks for reading and 'till next time.**

 **-** ** _VincentAtlas_**


End file.
